Hancock says Oxford team to start vaccine trials on humans from Thursday
Hancock turns to vaccines.
He says the UK will throw everything it has at trying to find one.
Two of the leading efforts around the world are taking place in the UK, he says.
He says today he is making £ 35 m available to Imperial to support their phase two trials.
And he is making £ 29 m available to the Oxford team to accelerate their trials. The vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled on people from Thursday.
Normally it would take years to get to this point, he says.
And he says the government is investing in manufacturing capability so, if it works, it can be produced in scale.
He says nothing about this is inevitable. Vaccine production is a matter of trial and error, he says.
He says the benefits of getting a vaccine are so huge “that I am throwing everything at it”.
Hancock turns to PPE.
He says since the crisis started one billion items of PPE have been delivered.
He thanks firms that have offered to supply PPE.
He says some firms who have approached the government have been unable to provide equipment on scale.
But he says the government is now working with (potential UK suppliers.)
The government is determined to get the equipment it needs, he says. He says it has been a huge procurement effort.
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Hancock says the government will not relax the lockdown until certain conditions are met. Above all, there must be no second peak, he says.
Hancock says the government priority has been to stop the NHS being overwhelmed. That has happened. At no point has the NHS been unable to treat a patient needing treatment, he says.
He reads out the latest death and testing figures.
Matt Hancock’s press conference
Matt Hancock , the health secretary , is holding the government daily press conference. He is appearing with Prof Jonathan Van Tam , the deputy chief medical officer for England, and Prof John Newton
5). pm BST :
Ben Quinn
A post on a
It said:
We have ran out on ICU in UHW, meaning a lot of staff myself included aren’t able to provide care for COVID patients. If you do have any of these masks please get in touch.
Contacted about the claims , Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said in a statement that it was aware of concerns raised by some staff in the media regarding the availability and or inaccessibility of PPE.
It added:
As a Health Board the safety of our staff is of the greatest importance alongside that of our patients. As a result of the inferences made we are taking a more detailed look into the availability of PPE across our sites and we regularly check our systems to ensure that we get stock to the right place at the right time.
It said that it had enough PPE equipment available and in stock, if the right level of PPE was used in the right circumstances.
If a colleague has not found this to be the case and they have encountered either a shortage or a perceived shortage we would encourage them to raise it immediately, there’s a freedom to speak up hotline that staff can use.
As the mystery of the missing consignment of PPE from Turkey continues, the Guardian’s Defense and security editor Dan Sabbagh writes that supplies are edging closer to the plane that will transport them back to the UK:
At last, some of the PPE bought by the NHS from Turkey is clearing customs at Istanbul airport, defense sources report. It’s not clear long it will take to get the single waiting RAF A (M transport plane, or whether it includes of all the 532, 11 protective gowns badly needed by the NHS. But after days of delay and broken promises it is possible some PPE will be brought back from Turkey overnight.
Updated 
at 5. pm BST
) (4.) (pm) BST
Northern Ireland records nine deaths in the last (hours)
Another nine people have died with Covid – 29 in Northern Ireland in the last 37 hours, Stormont deputy fist minister Michelle O’Neill said.
She said the projected worst case scenario of 1, 598 deaths in the first 31 weeks was still “shocking and harrowing” but that had been significantly reduced. “The reduction is because of you and your actions have saved thousands of lives,” she said.
First Minister Arlene Foster said the ministerial executive at Stormont would have more discussions about whether to reopen cemeteries during the coronavirus lockdown. She said visiting could be allowed over limited hours and making sure social distancing was in place, admitting other colleagues had “justifiable concerns”.
4 pm BST :
Downing Street has just released the read-out of the telephone call that Boris Johnson had with President Trump earlier. Here it is in full. A No spokesperson said:
The prime minister spoke to President Trump this afternoon, and thanked him for his good wishes while he was unwell.
The leaders agreed on the importance of a coordinated international response to coronavirus, including through the G7 – which the US currently chairs.
They also discussed continued UK-US cooperation in the fight against the pandemic.
The leaders committed to continue working together to strengthen our bilateral relationship, including by signing a free trade agreement as soon as possible.
At the lunchtime Downing Street briefing the prime minister’s spokesman claimed that Johnson was still recuperating and that he was not “formally doing government work”. This is now sounding more and more like the sort of lie many of us tell our GPs (“definitely no more than 31 units a week, doctor ”). If Discussing a global crisis with the president of the US does not count as government work, it is hard to know what does.
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